Daisy Sherard Yancey (1881-1970) was born in Hartwell, Georgia, to Andrew Sherard (1853-1912) and Mary Sherard (1858-?). By 1900, Daisy Yancey moved to Atlanta, Georgia, by 1900, where she served as the second president of the Neighborhood Union, a women-led social services organization for underprivileged African American families. She married Arthur Henry Yancey (1881-1969), and they had seven children: Bernise A. (1904-1930); Prentiss Q. (1907-1991); Daisy A. (1909-1910); Brenda H. (1913-1994); Asa G. (1916-2013); Orlando W. (1918-1944); and Rodrique L. (1921-1993).

Dr. Asa G. Yancey attended Booker T. Washinton High School and Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia, before earning his Doctor of Medicine degree from University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He married Carolyn Dunbar Yancey in 1944, and the couple had four children: Arthur Henry II (1949- ); Caren L. (1950-2005); Carolyn L.; and Asa G. Jr.

Dr. Asa G. Yancey Sr. served as a first lieutenant in the United States Army Medical Corp, as an instructor of surgery at Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee, and as the Chief of Surgery for the Veterans Administration Hospital in Tuskegee, Alabama, from 1948 until 1958. In 1958, the Yanceys moved to Atlanta, where Dr. Asa G. Yancey joined the staff of the Hughes Spalding Pavilion of Grady Memorial Hospital as the first African American doctor. Dr. Yancey later became the first African American faculty member of Emory's School of Medicine. In 1972, he became associate dean of the school and was appointed medical director of Grady Memorial Hospital.

Carolyn Dunbar Yancey (1921-2010) was born in Detroit, Michigan, to Henry Steward Dunbar (1887-1958) and Annie Louise Dunbar (1888-1977). She had a background in education and served on the Gate City Day Nursery Association Board of Directors, the Spelman College Board of Trustees, and the Wesley Community Center Board of Directors before being elected to the Atlanta Board of Education in 1982. Governor Joe Frank Harris appointed Yancey to the Board of Regents of the University System of Georgia in 1985 as the first African American woman to serve on the Board.